L E N 
431 
L E N 
and died foon after at Arras; the following year it was 
feized by the Spaniards ; but, being defeated by the prince 
of Conde,on the open country near it, called the Plains of 
Lens, they were obliged to abandon it; and,by the peace of 
the Pyrenees, in 1658, it was confirmed to France. It is feven 
miles north-weft of Douay, and feventy-two north of Paris. 
LENS'WYCK, a town of Norway : twenty miles weft- 
north-weft of Drontheim. 
LENT, part. pa(T. from lend: 
By Jove the ftranger and the poor is fent; 
And what to thofe we give, to Jove is lent. Pope. 
LENT, /• [lenren, Sax. the fpring.J The quadragefi- 
mal fail j a time of abftinence; the time from Alh Wed- 
nefday to Eafter-day.— Lent is from fpringing, becaufe it 
falleth in the fpring ; for which our progenitors, the Ger¬ 
mans, ufe glent. Camden. 
The Romilh church, and fome of the Proteftant com¬ 
munion, maintain, that lent was always a fall of forty 
days, and, as fuch, of apoftolical inftitution. Others think, 
it was only of ecclefialtical inftitution, and that it was va- 
rioufly obferved in different churches, and grew by de¬ 
grees from a fall of forty hours (the time our Saviour lay 
in the tomb) to a fall of forty days: this is the fentiment 
of Morton, bilhop Taylor, Du Moulin, Daille, and others. 
Its inftitution is not fpoken of in any council; but many 
of the ancient councils, particularly that of Nice, that of 
Laodicea, See. and fome of the oldelt fathers, particularly 
Tertullian, fpeak of it as a thing of fome (landing. Some 
will have it to have been firft inllituted by pope Telef- 
phorus, in the fecond century; others, who own that there 
was a kind of abftinence obferved in the ancient church 
before Eafter, yet contend that it was entirely voluntary, 
and was never enjoined by any law till the third century. 
The ancient Latin monks had three lents : the grand 
lent before Eafter; another before Chriftmas, called the 
lent of St. Martin ; and a third after Whitfunday, called 
the lent of St. John Baptift; each of which confided of 
forty days. The Greeks, belides that before Eafter, ob¬ 
ferved four others; that of the Apollles, of the Aflump- 
tion, of Chriftmas, and of the Transfiguration ; but they 
reduced each of them to the fpace of feven days. The 
Jacobites added a fifth, which they called the Repentance 
of Nineveh ; and the Maronites a fixth, called the Exal¬ 
tation of the Holy Crofs. 
The forty days in lent, fay fome, are obferved in re¬ 
membrance of the forty days wherein the world was 
drowned ; or, as others fay, of the forty years wherein the 
Jews wandered in the defert; others of the forty days al¬ 
lowed Nineveh for repentance ; others of the forty Itripes 
by which malefaflors were to be correfled ; or the forty 
days during which Mofes faded at the receiving of the 
law ; or the forty days fall of Elias ; or, finally, the forty 
days fall of our Saviour. 
The manner of obferving lent among thofe who were 
pioully difpofed, was to abllain from food till evening ; 
their only refrefhment was a fupper; and then it was in¬ 
different whether it was fielli or any other food, provided 
it was ufed with fobriety and moderation. Lent was 
thought the proper time for exercifing, more abundantly, 
every fpecies of charity. Thus what they fpared from 
their own bodies, by abridging them of a meal, was ufually 
given to the poor ; they employed their vacant hours in 
vifiting the fick and thofe that were in prifon, in enter¬ 
taining ftrangers, and reconciling differences. The im¬ 
perial laws forbade all profecution of men in criminal ac¬ 
tions, that might bring them to corporal punilhment and 
torture, during the whole feafon. This was a time of 
more than ordinary ftriftnefs and devotion; and therefore 
in many of the great churches they had religious alfem- 
blies for prayer and preaching every day. All public 
games and ftage-plays were prohibited at this feafon ; as 
alfo the celebration of all fellivals, birth-days, and mar¬ 
riages. 
Among the cuftoms which formerly prevailed in this 
Vgl. XII. No, 846. 
country during lent, was the following : An officer, de¬ 
nominated the king’s cock-crower, crowed the hour each 
night, within the precinfls of the palace, inftead of pro¬ 
claiming it in the ordinary manner of watchmen. This 
abfurd ceremony did not fall into difufe till the reign of 
George I. 
LENT, adj. Belonging to the quadragefiinal fad ; done 
in the time of lent. 
LENT au DOM'BES, a towm of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Ain : five miles fouth of Bourg en Brelfe. 
LEN'TA, a river of Naples, which runs into the Adri¬ 
atic between Pefcara and Ortona a Mare. Lat. 42. 28. N. 
Ion.14.20. E. 
LENTA'GO,yi in botany. See Viburnum. 
LEN'TE, a town of the duchy of Holftein : three miles 
north-north-weft of Futyn. 
LENTEL'LA, a town of Naples, in Albruezo Citra: 
eighteen miles north-eaft of Civita Borelia. 
LENTEMEN'T, adv. [French.] In mufic-books, is 
equivalent to largo in Italian, and implies a How move¬ 
ment. Its fuperlative, tres lentement, very flow', is the How¬ 
ell of all movements. 
LEN'TEN, adj. Such as is ufed in lent; fparing.— 
My lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertain¬ 
ment fliall the players receive from you 1 Shakefp. Hamlet. 
She quench'd her fury at the flood, 
And with a lenten falad cool’d her blood. 
Their commons, though but coarfe, were nothing fcant. 
Dryden's Hind and Panther. 
LEN'TEN, a town of Norway : twenty miles north of 
Berga. 
LEN'TERSHAUSEN, a town of the duchy of Wurz¬ 
burg : five miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Lauringen. 
LEN'TES, f. The leaft denomination of weight among 
the Romans. 
LEN'THALL (William), an Englilh lawyer, and fa¬ 
mous as a fpeaker in the long parliament, was born at Hen¬ 
ley in Oxfordlhire, in 1591, and educated at Alban-hall, 
Oxford, from whence he removed to Lincoln’s Inn, where 
he was called to the bar. In 1639 he was defied into 
parliament for Woodltock; and in 1640 was chofen 
fpeaker, in which capacity he was faid to have made a 
confiderable fortune by joining the ruling party. He was 
alfo mailer of the rolls, a commiflioner of the great feal, 
and chancellor of the duchy of Lancafter. At the refto- 
ration he was exempted from the aft of indemnity, but 
obtained a pardon from the king. He died, it has been 
aflerted, exprefling great penitence for the part which he 
had borne in the rebellion, in 1662. Several of his fpeeches 
and letters have been printed. 
LENTIBULA'RIA,/. in botany. See Utricularia. 
LENTIC'ULA, f. in botany, fee Aldrovanda, Cal- 
litriche, Fucus, Lemna, Marsilea, and Pistia. In 
optics, a fmall lens. With phyficians, a kind of fever; 
the lentigo. 
LENTICULAR, adj. Doubly convex; of the form of 
a lens.—The cryftalline humour is of a lenticular figure, 
convex on both lides. Ray on Creation. —Refembling fmall 
lentiles. 
LENTICULA'RIA, f. in botany. See Lemna. 
LEN'TIFORM, adj. Having the form of a lens. 
LENTIG'INOUS, adj. [from lentigo, Lat.] Scurfy; 
furfuraceous. 
LENTI'GO, f. [Latin ] A freckly or feurfy eruption 
upon the fldn ; fuch efpecially as is common to women 
in child-bearing. Quincy. 
LEN'TIL, J. [few, Lat. lenlille, Fr.] A plant. See Er- 
vum, vol. vi.p. 912.—It hath a papilionaceous flower, the 
pointal of which becomes a ftiort pod, containing orbicu¬ 
lar feeds, for the moll part convex ; the leaves are conju¬ 
gated, growing to one mid-rib, and are-terminated by ten¬ 
drils. Miller. —The Phililtines were gathered together where 
was a piece of ground full of lentiles. 2 Sam. xxiii. 11. 
LENTIL'IUS. See Linsenbahrt, 
6 G 
LENTI'NI. 
